[Python-Dev] devguide: Point out that OS X users need to change examples to use python.exe instead of

[Ned Deily]

In article 
<AANLkTikO1hD_axwBOEsAM-3mQ85Tw8P1ScMWot96xCZi at mail.gmail.com>,
 Brett Cannon <brett at python.org> wrote:

> On Thu, Jan 6, 2011 at 13:04, Ned Deily <nad at acm.org> wrote:
> > In article <E1Pawh0-0001Py-7i at dinsdale.python.org>,
> >  brett.cannon <python-checkins at python.org> wrote:
> > [...]
> >> summary:
> >>   Point out that OS X users need to change examples to use python.exe 
> >> instead
> >>   of python.
> >>  Once Python is done building you will then have a working build of Python
> >>  that can be run in-place; ``./python`` on most machines, ``./python.exe``
> >> -on OS X.
> >> +on OS X (all examples throughout this documentation say ``./python`` but
> >> +implies you choose the proper name based on your OS).
> >
> > That's true on OS X if you are using a case-insensitive file system.
> > But wIth the newer, case-sensitive HFS+, for example, you get ./python.
> 
> Are you thinking of UFS, because I am running HFS+ and I still get
> python.exe since it's case-preserving.

No, not UFS.  Since at least 10.4, OS X has supported the creation of at 
least four variants of HFS+ via Disk Utility.app or disktutil(8).   The 
10.6 version of diskutil added a handy way to list all available file 
systems:

$ diskutil listFileSystems
Formattable filesystems
[...]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
PERSONALITY                     USER VISIBLE NAME                               
--------------------------------------------------------------------
[...]
HFS+                            Mac OS Extended                                 
Case-sensitive HFS+             Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive)                
  
(or) hfsx
Case-sensitive Journaled HFS+   Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, 
Journaled)     
  (or) jhfsx
Journaled HFS+                  Mac OS Extended (Journaled)                     
  
(or) jhfs+


These days, one of the latter two is used to format the primary file 
system where OS X resides: I believe journaled is a requirement from at 
least 10.5 on, case-sensitive is optional.  I've been using "jhfsx" for 
my primary development machine since 10.5 was released a few years ago.  
Since it is a file system type,  AFAIK it is necessary to re-initialize 
the partition and reload files on it.

> Regardless, I will add a note about the case-sensitivity.

Thanks!

-- 
 Ned Deily,
 nad at acm.org